Year of Cheer Christmas - Stampin' Up! Year of Cheer DSP - Fab Friday 127

  Here we are back with another Fab Friday challenge and it's the last one of 2017!  How can the year have gone by so quickly??  It seems like just yesterday that we were doing our first challenge of 2017!  We know this time of year can be super busy for everyone but we also know that maybe you need a little push to finish those last remaining Christmas projects.  We've tailored our last challenge of the year to be an encouragement to finish and share your Christmas project with us!

 I know for sure that I do not have enough Christmas cards for everyone on our list so I needed to design another card that I could whip up a few fairly quickly.  I've barely touched my Year of Cheer Specialty paper so that was my starting point for my Christmas card.

  The Year of Cheer Specialty paper sure is beautiful but it sure is hard to photograph also.  It's hard to capture the shine without capturing the glare!  So please excuse the blinding corner of my card!

  The base is Whisper White thick, then the layer of DSP.  I used a silver foil snowflake and then added the copper embossed sentiment (popped up with dimensionals) from Night in Bethlehem on top.  The Stitched Shapes framelit oval was the perfect size for this stamp. With a change of sentiment this design can easily be used for a winter wedding or a happy New Year's card.

  Next, I added a length of silver ribbon on the side and topped it with a Copper foil die cut snowflake.  The snowflake dies in the Seasonal Layers framelits are very detailed and delicate and make for wonderful accents on cards.  And finally, in the center of the snowflake is a small rhinestone. 

  I hope to see your gorgeous Christmas creation in our Fab Friday challenge gallery!  End the year by joining in our last challenge of 2017!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Night in Bethlehem

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Year of Cheer Specialty DSP, Whisper White, Copper foil

Accessories: copper embossing powder, Stitched Shapes framelits, silver foil snowflake, Seasonal Layers framelits, rhinestone, silver ribbon, dimensionals

Classic Bethlehem Invitation - Stampin' Up! Night in Bethlehem

  I help out in a 2-3 year old Sunday School class at our church and each year the head teacher for the group holds a Christmas party at her house for the kids and their families.  I, of course, offer to do the invitations because that's my thing and she won't let me do anything else!  Did I mention she's 89?  She is a wonder and I love being able to volunteer with her!  She's taught some kind of Sunday School class since she was 16!  I tell her all the time that I hope that I can have energy like her when I'm 41 no less 89!

  I knew as soon as I saw the Night in Bethlehem bundle in the catalog that it would be perfect for these party invitations.

  This design is really not much different than the Night Sky Over Bethlehem card I shared the other day but I did simplify it as I was making 10 of them and didn't have much time to do it.

  The card base is Sahara Sand and then a layer of Night of Navy embossed with little gold stars all over.

  The buildings are Whisper White and the top layer is popped on dimensionals for depth.

  Finally a beautiful Gold Glimmer Paper star was die cut and popped up over the city.

 On the inside of the card along with the party details I stamped Mary and Joseph.  The envelope has the shepherds looking up at a stamped star.  I just couldn't leave anyone off of this card!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Night in Bethlehem

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Bethlehem Edgelit dies, gold embossing powder, dimensionals

Mini Christmas Tree - Stampin' Up! Christmas Quilt

  I am so sad that the Christmas Quilt bundle won't be carrying over after the Holiday catalog ends.  I don't think I've even scratched the surface of what can be made with this bundle.  I was hoping for a coordinating set for spring in the upcoming Occasions catalog but no luck!

 We did use the bundle at my last class to make this cute Christmas card.  The 6x6 Quilted Christmas DSP was so fun to use for the background.  There are so many great patterns in this pack that I know some of my stampers had a hard time choosing which 3 to use on their own card.

 The card base is Garden Green, then 3 different panels of the Quilted Christmas paper.  Next, using one of the Quilt Builder dies we made the fun stitching detail in a panel of Whisper White.  I saw it as a star but one of my stampers pointed out that it kind of looked like a snowflake too; it's fun to see what people see when looking at the same thing isn't it?

  Anyway, we used the star/snowflake imprint as the base for the tree.  The tree was stamped with Garden Green ink onto Lemon Lime Twist cardstock and hand cut (there is a die that does the triangle shape but it's just as easy to snip it out, especially in a class setting). We stamped the tree base in Real Red on Real Red cardstock and also hand cut it.  The star is die cut from Silver Glimmer paper.  All the tree pieces are popped up with dimensionals.  The mini dimensionals were the perfect size!

  The sentiment from Oh, What Fun is stamped on Whisper White in Garden Green ink and the end flagged and slide under the tree panel.

  The design is a quick card and so fun with all the different patterns you can choose for the background panels.

  I'm sorry the Christmas Quilt bundle won't be carrying over but I'm definitely going to enjoy using it while I can!

  Thanks for looking at Fab Friday!

Stamps: Christmas Quilt, Oh, What Fun

Ink: Garden Green, Real Red

Paper: Garden Green, Real Red, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer, Quilted Christmas DSP

Accessories: Quilt Builder framelits, dimensionals

Night Sky Over Bethlehem - Stampin' Up! Night in Bethlehem

  I had my last class of the year before Thanksgiving and I hadn't used the Night in Bethlehem bundle in class yet so I knew for sure that I wanted to design a card to show off the town die cuts and stamp set.  After searching around the internet for ideas I thought that a fun background technique would be perfect.

  The Salted Background technique really gives a great night sky look and every time it comes out just a bit different.  Here's what you need if you want to try this technique yourself.  It's really easy!

- Shimmery White cardstock
- ink pads & sponges
- water in a spritzer
- salt (I used kosher)

1) sponge your ink colors in a random pattern/blotches all over the Shimmery White cardstock, overlapping the colors and covering all the white.  I use a rubbing motion as opposed to a dabbing motion to apply the ink to get it really saturated.  I used Fresh Fig, Island Indigo and Night of Navy but play around and see what combos you like.

2) Once you have your cardstock covered with color spritz it with water all over.  You don't need to soak it but get the water to the edges.  The ink may start to puddle and that's ok!

3) now sprinkle the salt over the wet cardstock.  More salt = more little splotches, Less salt = less little splotches

4) now spritz your cardstock again leaving the salt in place.  You want to see a bit of pooling and you should see come of the ink colors getting drawn to the salt crystals.

5) Depending on how impatient you are you can set the cardstock aside to air dry leaving the salt in place or you can dry it with your heat tool also leaving the salt in place.  In the interest of time during my class we used the heat tool but when I made the extras I left them to dry on their own for a few hours.  Either way is fine.

6) When the cardstock is dry, brush the salt off into the trash.  Now you have a beautiful background panel on which to build your Bethlehem!  Isn't it gorgeous?

  After cutting the town pieces in Whisper White and adhering them to the background panel I added some light dots with the clear Wink of Stella for some extra stars.

  A large Gold Glimmer paper star was also cut and popped up with a dimensional.

 We stamped the large sentiment and Mary & Joseph on the inside of the card.

  This might be my favorite card design of the season...so far!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Night in Bethlehem

Ink: Fresh Fig, Island Indigo, Night of Navy

Paper: Shimmery White, Whisper White, Fresh Fig, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Bethlehem Edgelit dies, Wink of Stella, dimensionals, salt

Basic Snowflakes - Stampin' Up! Snowflake Sentiments

  I have overcommited to some volunteer activities lately so I'll have to keep the chatter to a minimum today so I can get to some of those things!  One of these days I'll learn to say no and not feel guilty about it!

 Nothing fancy going on with today's card just some basic snowflakes in some warm Christmas colors.

  I always like the Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler color combination for Christmas cards and the delicate white snowflakes add just enough detail to make this sentiment focused card pop.

  The base is Cherry Cobber and then a piece of Crumb Cake is die cut with the edge snowflake shape die.

  The snowflake strip is cut from Whisper White and adhered to the Crumb Cake piece.  Over that is a piece of retired Whisper White organza ribbon.

  Finally the sentiment is stamped in Cherry Cobbler onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out with a Stitched Shape oval framelit and is popped on dimensionals.

  Stamps: Snowflake Sentiments

  Ink: Cherry Cobbler

  Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Whisper White

 Accessories: Swirly Snowflakes Thinlets, Stitched Shapes framelits, Whisper White organza ribbon (reitred), dimensionals

Red Snowflake Mittens - Stampin' Up! Smitten Mittens

  Sometimes the hardest projects to design are ones intended for new stampers.  I was asked by one of my regular stampers to do a class for her women's group with a few easy projects for them to do at their monthly get together.  I'm used to using everything but the kitchen sink on my regular stamp club cards so to pare it down to just a few supplies for a group of new stampers actually takes a lot of work!

  I took a look at what stamp sets would be good to use to give the ladies a decent amount of stamping but not be overwhelming.  And most importantly still make a cute card.  The Smitten Mittens set fit the bill.  I did pre-cut the mitten shapes with the Many Mittens framelits so that I didn't need to haul the Big Shot with me.  And I was so glad I did as the group met on the 3rd floor of a building without an elevator!  I would have gotten quite the workout carrying the Big Shot that day!

  The card starts with a Whisper White thick base and then we added a strip of Quilted Christmas DSP in one of the Garden Green designs.

  The mittens are Real Red cardstock and the cuff and snowflake are also stamped in Real Red.  The sentiment is stamped in Garden Green in the corner of the card front.

  The mittens are layered with the top one popped up with dimensionals.  For the embellishments we put some adhesive rhinestones in the centers of the snowflake detail and a 3/8" classic weave ribbon knot to "tie" the mittens together.

  The ladies did a great job and seemed really pleased with their cards so that is always a good thing!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Smitten Mittens

Ink: Real Red, Garden Green

Paper: Whisper White thick, Real Red, Quilted Christmas DSP

Accessories: Many Mittens framelits, rhinestones, classic weave ribbon, dimensionals

Snowflake Christmas Wishes - Stampin' Up! Snowflake Sentiments

 I made this Christmas card a few weeks ago for one challenge or another (I can't even remember which one!) and never got around to photographing and entering it into the challenge.  I think the challenge for the layout as I don't think I would have come up with this one on my own!

  I'm really liking these colors together and will have to try some more with this combination: Cherry Cobbler, Tranquil Tide and Soft Sky.

  The card base is Cherry Cobbler embossed with the Winter Wonder embossing folder.  That big snowflake makes such a statement whether on it's own or layered with other elements.

  Next is a triangle of Tranquil Tide with a strip of the retired gold sequin trim.  I just used a length of tear tape to adhere it.

  I used the Swirly Snowflake thinlets to cut some snowflakes out of Soft Sky.  The snowflakes are a strip of three so you can just snip off the snowflakes you want to use individually.  I also used one little snowflake from one of the other dies to layer onto the larger one.

  The sentiment from Snowflake Sentiments set is stamped in Tranquil Tide and then cut out with the Stitched Shapes square framelit.  I added a few loose sequins to finish this card off.

  I hope you're having success with your own Christmas card making!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Sentiments

Ink: Tranquil Tide

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Tranquil Tide, Soft Sky, Whisper White

Accessories: Swirly Snowflakes thinlets, Winter Wonder embossing folder, Stitched Shapes framelits,  gold sequin trim (retired)

Sweet Mitten - Stampin' Up! Smitten Mittens

  In case you haven't heard the news; Stampin' Up! is offering FREE shipping on orders placed today (Monday) until 11:59pm MT!  How cool is that?  I've been a demonstrator for a long time and I can't ever remember getting free shipping before!  Join in on this great Cyber Monday deal head over to my online store and get started!

  Today's card is another sweet one made with the Smitten Mittens bundle.  I went with a non-traditional Christmas color combination and I like the soft look of it.

  I started with a Pink Pirouette base and stamped the little mittens across the card front in Pink Pirouette ink for a subtle background.

  Heading to the ribbon scraps I pulled out a length of the retired white striped organza ribbon and added my elements on top of it.

  I cut an open circle out of silver Glimmer paper and popped it up with dimensionals.  The mitten, cuff and tree are embossed with white embossing powder on Pear Pizzazz cardstock.  It is also popped on dimensionals.

  An 1/8" silver ribbon makes for a nice bow and adds to the bit of sparkle and that's it for this card!
 
  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Smitten Mittens

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Versamark

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Silver Glimmer paper, Pear Pizzazz

Accessories: circle framelits, Many Mittens framelits, white embossing powder, dimensionals, 1/8" silver ribbon, shite striped organza ribbon (retired)

Fresh Pine Sprig - Stampin' Up! Pretty Pine Thinlets - Fab Friday 125

Are you all still stuffed from your huge Thanksgiving feasts?  I hope you can move enough to get to your stamps and inks and join us for the latest Fab Friday Challenge!

  Now that we have Thanksgiving officially behind us we can set our sights on the fast approaching Christmas holiday.  I certainly need to get into gear if I'm going to end up with enough Christmas cards for my lengthy list!  Our challenge this time can easily be worked into a Christmas card.  Check out these fabulous colors!  It's a fresh, fun take on the the traditional red/green Christmas color scheme.

  I went straight for my Pretty Pines thinlets to make a crisp, clean card focusing on our challenge colors.  I tried at first mixing and matching the thinlets with the coordinating stamp set, Christmas Pines but after a few tries I decided I like the look of just the die cuts on their own.

  The card base is Emerald Envy, then a layer of Whisper White embossed with the Cable Knit embossing folder.  Another layer of Emerald Envy and Whisper white is the base for the evergreen sprig and is also popped with dimensionals.  

  I cut 3 pine branches in Emerald Envy, 2 of the smaller leaves in Lemon Lime Twist and then one sprig of the small berries in Real Red Glimmer paper.  I layered them all using glue dots for adhesive and then attached them to the card front.

  The striped real red bow came from my ribbon scraps but I'm pretty sure it was from last years Holiday catalog.  It was just the right length for a little bow.  It always feels good to use up some scraps doesn't it?

  I did actually do some stamping on the inside using the Christmas Pines stamp set; a little pine branch in the corner and then then "may your Christmas sparkle with joy and happiness" sentiment.  So technically I did stamp on this card!

  I hope you'll get some inspiration for your own cards from the rest of the Fab Friday Design Team samples.  Please share your creations with us in the gallery; we love seeing all different ideas!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: none, Christmas Pines (used on the inside)

Ink: Real Red, Emerald Envy (on the inside)

Paper: Emerald Envy, Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Real Red Glimmer paper

Accessories: Cable Knit embossing folder, Pretty Pines thinlets, dimensionals, glue dots, Real Red striped ribbon (retired)

Give Thanks Quilt - Stampin' Up! Christmas Quilt

  Today's card is one that can be used to send out at Thanksgiving or for a general thank you card.  The Painted Autumn Harvest DSP gives this card a nice fall feeling.  I'm sharing this one at the SUO Challenge this week as their theme is Being Thankful.

  The card base is Very Vanilla thick.  Then a smaller layer in Soft Sky is stamped with the little flower shape in Soft Sky ink.

  The quilt panel is put together with the Painted Autumn Harvest DSP and Early Espresso cardstock. I layered it over the top of a piece of jute twine.  The sentiment from Labels to Love is stamped in Early Espresso and then punched out with the 1 3/8" circle punch.  An adhesive pearl finishes off the center of the quilt.

  This isn't a complicated card but does take a bit of time to piece the quilt.  One tip that I think is helpful is that after you get the frame (the Early Espresso piece on my card) glued down is to put the glue inside the frame for each section and press the DSP piece into the glue instead of trying to put the glue on the small DSP pieces...you'll keep your fingers clean and it will help not get extra glue around your frame.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Quilt, Labels to Love

Ink: Soft Sky, Early Espresso

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Painted Harvest DSP

Accessories: Quilt Builder framelits, 1 3/8" circle punch, jute twine, dimensionals, adhesive pearl

Introducing the Stamparatus!

  Check out this fun new tool just unveiled by Stampin' Up!  How easy will making multiples be with this nifty stamp positioner??  And that's just the start of it!

  Why do YOU need one? You’ll fall in love with stamping all over again when you learn everything you can do with it!

• -Make multiples with ease 
• -Consistently stamp crisp, clean images
• -If you want a darker impression, apply more ink and restamp—no need to start over
• -Make fewer mistakes, saving time and money
• -Easily create 2-step, 3-step, and 4-step stamped images using reversible plates
• -Develop new and specialized stamping techniques with adjustable stamping plates and precision placement

     Watch this Video of the Stamparatus in action!

  Here are some Stamparatus details:

     -Compatible with Stampin’ Up!’s red rubber and photopolymer stamp

• -Foam mat to use with photopolymer stamps
• -Rulers and gridlines for quick measuring
• -2 open sides so you can stamp on larger paper
• -2 reversible plates: a total of 4 surfaces to work with
• -2 magnets to hold the paper in place
• -Magnet storage areas
• -Retail Price–$49.00 USD/$65.00 CAD

  So how do you get a Stamparatus??  

    There will be 3 reservation windows spaced out over the next few month that you can reserve your Stamparatus and as soon as they are available will ship once you've completed the order.  As soon as I have the link I will share but for planning purposes here are the timeframes:

RESERVATION WINDOWS	AVAILABLE TO SHIP
November 16–30, 2017	Approx. February 1, 2018
December 5–30, 2017	Approx. March 19, 2018
January 15–30, 2018	Approx. April 15, 2018

 
  You must create an online shopping account to be able to reserve a Stamparatus.  To get started head to my online store (link in the sidebar) and create an account, including a credit card, if you don't already have one.  Not sure if you have one?  Just ask me and I'll check!  Once the Stamparatus is available Stampin' Up! will notify you to complete your order so you'll go to your online account and it will be in your cart.  You can then add any other items you'd like to order and then complete the order by paying with a credit card and entering any rewards you've earned or hostess codes as necessary.  You won't be charged for the Stamparatus until you've completed the order but if you delete it from your shopping cart once it's available we can't get it back.

  If you miss out on a reservation window or you want to see one up close and personal before ordering not to worry the Stamparatus will be included in the 2018-19 Annual catalog as a regular item and you can order it that way once that catalog is available.

  Please let me know if you have questions about this great new stamping tool!

Warm Mittens Gift Card Holder - Stampin' Up! Smitten Mittens

  We were certainly wearing our mittens and gloves this past Saturday at the JMU football game!  It was a frosty day and luckily there wasn't much wind or we would have been even colder!  I'm glad the Dukes won or I don't know if I would have thought it was time well spent but we did get to spend time with friends so it was worth it on that front.

  This Smitten Mitten card was a big hit at my last class and a lot of stampers ended up getting the Smitten Mittens bundle so they could make more cute cards at home.

  This was a bit of a hard one to photograph but I hope you can see how the card comes together.  I always like to share how to make a gift card holder at one of my classes before Christmas as I know a lot people like to have more of a special packaging for a gift card present.

  For this design it's only 2 scores and a little Tear Tape and you've got a gift card holder!  Really it's that easy!  Cut your full sheet of card stock in half the long way so you have a narrow skinny piece that is 4 1/4" wide and 11" long.  I used Emerald Envy for this design.  Then score at 2" and 5 1/2".  On the 2 inch flap add a little bit of tear tape along each each as close to the edge as you can get on the part that folds to the inside of the card, peel off the backing and then fold over to the inside of the card. This is what it looks like after.  See the slot for a gift card?

 To make a little tab to pull the gift card out of the slot just use the Tabs for Everything set and the circle tab punch.  A little bit of tear tape holds the tab pull to the gift card.

The card front comes together really quickly by stamping the larger greeting mitten in Cherry Cobbler ink on Whisper White paper as well as the lined cuff piece and then the other mitten shape in Cherry Cobbler ink onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  Using the Many Mittens framelits we cut out the shapes.  

  One of the overlooked details in the Many Mittens framelit set are the texture pieces.  They are a bit like miny embossing folders without the folder aspect.  They are just little pieces of metal that don't cut (they are smooth without a cutting edge) and you just lay them on top of the cardstock and run them through the Big Shot as if you were cutting with a die and they leave a fun design pressed right into the cardstock like an embossing folder.  We used the little row of hearts down the center of the Cherry Cobbler mitten and then filled them in with clear Wink of Stella.

  The mittens are adhered to the card front overlapping a bit with only adhesive on the edge of the one mitten so it doesn't stick the card closed.  The front panel is embossed with the Cable Knit embossing folder and has a length of Cherry Cobbler double stitched ribbon for detail.

  And finally the inside of the card is stamped with the greeting and a little Christmas tree in the corner using Emerald Envy ink.  

  I hope you see as many possibilities for this adorable set as I do.  I am already planning some Christmas thank you cards, winter birthday and even Valentines Day.  There are hearts and the word "smitten" in the stamp set which I think would work wonderfully for Valentine's!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Smitten Mittens, Tabs for Everything

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Emerald Envy

Paper: Emerald Envy, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Accessories: Many Mittens framelits, Cable Knit embossing folder, double stitched ribbon, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Circle Tab punch, circle punch, Tear Tape

  

Quilted Christmas Tree - Stampin' Up! Christmas Quilt - Fab Friday 125

  How does 2 weeks go by so quickly??  One day I'm looking at the calendar and it seems I have oodles of time before the next Fab Friday Design Team deadline and then it seems I blink and all that time I thought I had is gone!  I wish I could say that time has been flying because I'm having so much fun in my stamp room but I actually haven't had a lot of time lately to play.  I guess I need to make time or I won't have enough Christmas cards to send out!

  Here is the fun sketch challenge this time around at Fab Friday!

     I took those 4 rectangle panels literally and dove into the awesome Quilted Christmas 6x6 DSP pack.  This is a great way to show off multiple coordinating patterns!

 Nothing too fancy on this card.  Just some layering with the circle dies and the red mini Tinsel Trim between the circles for some pop.

  The tree is a 2 step stamped image using Garden Green and Lemon Lime Twist with Real Red for the tree stamp.   I added gold glimmer paper star at the top.

  I made the little holly leaf and berry tag using the tiny tag die from the Bouquet Bunch framelits.  The holly leaves are made with dies in the Quilt Builder framelits set and the berries are rhinestones colored with the Cherry Cobbler dark Stampin' Blends marker.  the tag is tied onto the tinsel trim with a bit of white baker's twine.

  Check out the rest of the Fab Friday Design Team samples and then play along with us in using this great sketch!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Quilt

Ink: Garden Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Real Red

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Garden Green, Quilted Christmas DSP, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Layering Circles framelits, Stitched Shapes framelits, Quilt Builder framelits, Bouquet Bunch framelits, mini tinsel trim, rhinestones, dimensionals, white bakers twine, Cherry Cobbler Blends marker

Dapper Snowflakes - Stampin' Up! Snowflake Sentiments

  The card I'm sharing today seems appropriate since we have a freeze warning for Friday night into Saturday.  Yikes!  It was 80 degrees last week and now we're going to have freezing temperatures!  Welcome to central Virginia weather folks!

  We made this card at my last stamp club and it was fun to show off a mix of products to make this easy card.

  The base is Dapper Denim stamped with the Snowflake Sentiments snowflakes in Dapper Denim ink.  Then we have an embossed piece of vellum.  The Winter Wonder embossing folder makes such a great bold image to layer other card elements over or to stand alone as the main feature on a card.  

  A tip to remember when dry embossing vellum is to test out a few scrap pieces first to get just the right sandwich for your Big Shot.  If I used the regular embossing sandwich with my machine it tears through the vellum so I had to adjust my layers and use a shim to get the right amout of pressure without the tearing.   

  The Year of Cheer washi tape was a fun detail to add to the vellum to help hold it down to the card front as the only other adhesive is directly behind the layered tags.

  A Whisper White Everyday Label punch and then the sentiment embossed in copper and punched out with a circle punch makes for the main element.  A little Champagne foil flag adds to the bit of metallic glam.  The snowflake peeking out is from the Year of Cheer Specialty DSP...it's punched out of the snowflake pattern and then sponged with Dapper Denim ink.  A white bakers twine bow is the final detail.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Sentiments

Ink: Dapper Denim, Versamark

Paper: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, vellum, Year of Cheer Specialty DSP, Champagne foil sheets

Accessories: Everyday Label punch, circle punches, Winter Wonder embossing folder, Year of Cheer washi tape, copper embossing powder, white bakers twine, dimensionals

Soft Embossed Snowflakes - Stampin' Up! Snowflake Sentiments

  It's election day here in Virginia so my schedule is all thrown off as the boys are home from school.  My plan was to get up at the same time as I usually do, go vote and then take my morning walk.  Yeah that didn't happen....sleeping in seemed like a better idea! I figured since I have to mow the lawn later I'll get my steps in that way! So until I can get my act together to get out of the house to vote and do errands I'll share a card I made a few weeks ago.

 The Snowflake Sentiments bundle is a great mix of images and sentiments paired up with a great detailed thinlets set.  So many directions to go with this suite of products!  I kept this card pretty simple and used some non-traditional Christmas colors to do a watercolor wash.

  The card base is Whisper White thick.  Using a piece of Shimmery White cardstock I rounded the edges and then embossed the snowflakes with clear embossing powder.  After lightly misting the cardstock around the snowflakes I used an Aquapainter to brush on Bermuda Bay, Sweet Sugar Plum and Marina Mist ink slightly overlapping the colors so that they blend.

  After drying the panel with my heat tool I stamped the sentiment in Marina Mist ink.  The last detail of this card is the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper layered snowflake cut using the Swirly Snowflakes Thinlets.

  I'm off to try to be somewhat productive today!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Sentiments

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Sweet Sugar Plum, Marina Mist, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Shimmery White, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper

Accessories: corner rounder, clear embossing powder, Swirly Snowflakes thinlets

Teen Congrats - Stampin' Up! Sunshine Wishes Thinlets

 We were honored to be invited to a family friends bar mitzvah last weekend and of course the occasion had to be marked with a card!  So a teen card for a religious occasion....wow!  Talk about a challenging card to make!

  I decided to do a straight up congratulations card in some guy colors.  I figured some texture and angles would fit the bill.

   The card base is Basic Black, then a layer of Whisper White.  I cut a piece of Island Indigo on an angle and embossed it with the Hexagons embossing folder.  I adhered the embossed piece to a panel of Sahara Sand that I stamped some speckles from the Swirly Bird stamp set and then embossed some gold stars.  The stars are in the Tabs for Everything set.

  I cut 2 "congrats" with the Sunshine Wishes Thinlets, and layered the Whisper White one behind and slightly offset from the black one.  I popped it up with very small pieces of dimensionals.

  The smaller sentiment from Sunshine Sayings was stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Versamark and embossed in gold.

  Since the card was for a 13 year old boy I couldn't add any ribbon so I went with some retired candy dots in black and Island Indigo sprinkles on both parts of the card.

 Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Sunshine Sayings, Tabs for Everything, Swirly Bird

Ink: Sahara Sand, Versamark

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Island Indigo

Accessories: Hexagons embossing folder, gold embossing powder, Sunshine Wishes thinlets, dimensionals, candy dots (retired)

Traditional Christmas Quilt - Stampin' Up! Christmas Quilt

  You can't get any more traditional than Real Red and Garden Green and a quilt to celebrate Christmas!

  The Quilted Christmas bundle in the Holiday catalog is fantastic and it gives you so many options for designing all kinds of cards.  I've enjoyed using these products and and I'm looking forward to making even more Christmas designs with this bundle.

  The card base is Garden Green and then a piece of Quilted Christmas DSP.  I layered several Quilt Builder framelits elements over each other for the focal point.

  I used a bit of Classic Weave ribbon in Whisper White to anchor my sentiment which I embossed in Copper embossing powder.  Once the ends were flagged and it was popped on dimensionals I added a few holly berries and leaves.  Are you searching your catalogs to try to figure out where the little red berries are?  I made them using the Silver Metallic shapes (page 196 Annual Catalog) and colored them with my new Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends alcohol markers!  Not only can you color stamped images with them you can color embellishments too! 

  Stampin' Blends are available starting today for customers so check them out in my Stampin' Up! store (link in the sidebar).  If you have more questions about them just let me know and I'd be happy to help!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Quilt

Ink: Versamark  Stampin' Blends: Cherry Cobbler

Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Quilted Christmas DSP

Accessories: Quilt Builder framelits, copper embossing powder, dimensionals, metallic shapes

Piggy Thank You - Stampin' Up! This Little Piggy

  My friend (and also my downline) Nicole bailed me out last week when I realized I had designed a card for my stamp club that used the Dapper Denim ink pad on 3 different elements of the same card and she let me borrow her ink pad for the class.  Having 15 stampers using one ink pad for multiple elements is just a log jam waiting to happen!  Usually I design my class projects so that this doesn't happen but for some reason I didn't think about it with this card but Nicole was so generous in lending me her ink pad.  Stampy friends are the best!

  Of course before I returned the ink pad I re-inked it and had to make a proper thank you card!  I wanted to play around with the new Stampin' Blends (being released for customers tomorrow!!) and get some more practice in so I pulled out the This Little Piggy stamp set and combined it with the Cas(e) This Sketch challenge.

  I still have a ways to go with my alcohol marker coloring but it's fun to play.   The Stampin' Blends make it pretty easy since there is a light marker and dark marker of the same shade so there isn't a lot of guess work involved as with other marker brands. And if it's not pretty easy chances are I'm not going to do it very often!

  The card base is Whisper White thick covered with a piece of the Wood Textures DSP.  All of the stamping is done with Memento black onto Whisper White and then colored with the Stampin' Blends.  I used Old Olive, Pool Party and Pink Pirouette.

  After coloring I used the Layering Circles framelits to cut out the images and to cut scalloped circles for the backing.  I popped the circles with dimensionals and trimmed the edges to fit the sketch.

  The sentiment is stamped in black on a strip of Pear Pizzazz cardstock and a little retired Calypso Coral baker's twine bow embellishes the end.

  And of course I had to do up the inside of the thank you card to fit the pig theme!

  

  The beginning of the sentiment is from the This Little Piggy set and I added in the "for saving my bacon" with the Labeler Alphabet stamp set.

  The strip of bacon was made by using the wavy/swoosh thing from the Swirly Scribbles thinlets to cut a Very Vanilla strip and a Cherry Cobbler strip.  I sponged some Crumb Cake ink along the edges of the Very Vanilla as well as used it to darken the Cherry Cobbler pieces which I layered back into the frame.

 All in all a pretty simple card which I think turned out pretty cute!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: This Little Piggy, Labeler Alphabet

Ink: Memento black  Stampin' Blends: Old Olive, Pool Party, Pink Pirouette

Paper: Whisper White, Whisper White thick, Wood Textures DSP, Old Olive, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Layering Circles framelits, dimensionals, Calypso Coral baker's twine (retired), Swirly Scribbles thinlets

  

Vintage Leaves Sympathy - Stampin' Up! Vintage Leaves

  Just a quick share today; there always seems to be so much to do on Monday mornings that you'd think I would learn and get most of it done on Sundays right?  Nope!

  For this sympathy card I kept it very simple with the color combination.  Just Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Night of Navy.

  The background leaves are embossed in white and it makes for a nice subtle background and adds texture without being overpowering.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Vintage Leaves, Rose Wonder

Ink: Versamark, Night of Navy

Paper: Whisper White thick, Crumb Cake

Accessories: white embossing powder, corner rounder, Leaflet framelits, linen thread, Crinkled Seam binding ribbon, dimensionals

Mini Maple Leaves - Stampin' Up! Colorful Seasons - Fab Friday 124

  And here we are back at Friday again!  And to sweeten the day it's a Fab Friday challenge day!  We have a great autumn color combination for you today though I'm excited to see what people might create that is not an autumn theme.  I couldn't see anything else but leaves when I saw this color combination.  

  I've always thought that Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango are just too similar and unless I'm trying to match up some DSP I hardly ever grab Tangerine Tango so it was a bit of challenge having 2 oranges in combination.  As you can see from my card there is hardly any difference!  Oh well.  I'm sure one of the other Design Team members will knock your socks off and show these oranges in a completely different light.

  The only detail that's worth a special mention here is the little line of die cut dots across the bottom of the card.  I made it using a die in the Swirly Snowflakes thinlet set.  I hadn't used it yet and I really like the subtle detail it adds.

  I hope you have fun using these colors in your weekend stamping!  Don't forget to share your creation with us over at Fab Friday!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Colorful Seasons, Rose Wonder

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Fresh Fig, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark

Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, Seasonal Layers Thinlets, Swirly Snowflakes thinlets, copper embossing powder, 1/8" Fresh Fig Sheer ribbon, mini dimensionals, corner rounder punch (retired)

Fall Daisies - Stampin' Up! Daisy Delight

In keeping with the theme of my days lately I'm still running behind in sharing my stamp club cards from last month.  I designed this card using a simple, back to basics technique.  Sometimes, with all of the fun new tools and Big Shot dies available we can forget about the easy "stamps, paper, ink" stamping.

  Not the best photo (apparently another theme of my days lately!), but this is a very clean and simple card.

  First, to make the blue square I just took a piece of copy paper and made a stencil template by using my Layering Squares framelits to cut a square out of the center of the copy paper.  If you don't have a Big Shot or the square framelits you can cut your own stencil with an exacto knife.  Other shapes work great too!  Great creative!  After using a bit of  repositionable adhesive (washi tape works too) to line up the stencil over a piece of Whisper White I sponged Soft Sky ink inside the square.  I ave found that starting your sponging/swiping on the outside edges of the stencil and working to the center give the best results and prevents the template from getting caught and torn.  And now you have a nice light background to do the rest of your stamping on.  I tend to keep all of my stencils so that I don't have to always make a new one cutting down on one more step!

  The Daisy Delight stamp set has the perfect size of small flowers to use inside the sponged frame.  The little images in this set might get overlooked at first glance in favor of the large daisy and matching punch but definitely take a look at some of the smaller stamps; there is a lot you can do with them!  The daisy stems are stamped in Tranquil Tide ink, the base of the daisies is Crushed Curry and the outline overlay is Early Espresso.

  See, very easy and it doesn't take a lot of tools or extra equipment!  The final details is the punched sentiment.  Since the rest of the card was flat I wanted one element to be popped.  The sentiment is from the Thoughtful Banners stamp set in Early Espresso and then punched out with the Duet Banner punch.  I trimmed the flag ends off, punched another banner and used the trimmed flagged ends and popped the sentiment up with mini dimensionals.  This is a way to extend the size of the banner as well.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Delightful Daisy, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Soft Sky, Tranquil Tide, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso

Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White

Accessories: Layering Squares framelits (for stencil), Duet Banner punch, mini dimensionals

Fall Birthday Bouquet - Stampin' Up! Beautiful Bouquet

Just a quick post today with little chatter; I have to clean my house to get ready for stamp club tomorrow!  Yuck to cleaning but yay to stamp club!

I made this card a few weeks back for a fall theme challenge.  The picture had some beautiful flowers in rich autumn colors which I tried to recreate with the Beautiful Bouquet bundle.  I did some select sponging on a few of the flowers and leaves to add some depth.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet

Ink: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist, So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, Cajun Craze

Paper: Whisper White, Woodgrain DSP, Old Olive, Fresh Fig

Accessories: Bouquet Bunch framelits, Layering Circles framelits, corner rounder, twine, gold thread, dimensionals

Rich Autumn Leaves Part 2 - Stampin' Up! Colorful Seasons

 A few weeks ago I shared a card for the Fab Friday challenge that was a color challenge.  It looks almost exactly like this one right?  I designed this one first for my stamp club last month and just switched the colors out for the challenge (along with a few other details).  Work smarter, not harder!  Some weeks there just aren't enough hours to stamp as much as I'd like to!

  We've had a few cool days and cold nights so I think we'll be starting to see some autumn color like this soon.

  One of my stampers had mentioned last month that she had to send out a few sympathy cards recently and we agreed that sympathy cards weren't really fun cards to make in the moment.  I usually like to have a few pre-made in my card stash so that is why I designed this card for my stampers last month.  The great thing about a design like this is it's versatility; with just a quick change of sentiment it can be a birthday, hello or thank you card.

  The card base is Very Vanilla thick and then a layer of the Woodgrain DSP with the leaves from Colorful Seasons stamped in Crumb Cake all over.

  A piece of 1/8" Sheer ribbon in Fresh Fig is tied across the card front.  The sentiment from Thoughts & Prayers is stamped in Fresh Fig with some Crumb Cake (stamped off once) leaves and then it's all punched out with the Everyday Label punch.

  The leaves are embossed in gold on watercolor paper and then colored with reinkers and an Aquapainter in Cajun Craze, Fresh Fig and Crushed Curry.  The leaves are cut out with the Seasonal Layers thinlets and popped up okn the card front with dimensionals.

  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and gets lots of stamping time in!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Colorful Seasons, Thoughts & Prayers

Ink: Crumb Cake, Fresh Fig, Versamark  Reinkers: Cajun Craze, Fresh Fig, Crushed Curry

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Wood Grain DSP, watercolor paper, Very Vanilla

Accessories: gold embossing powder, Seasonal Layers thinlets, Fresh Fig sheer ribbon, dimensionals, Everyday Label punch

Quilted Christmas Tree - Stampin' Up! Christmas Quilt

I just had a bit of a panic attack!  I googled how many days until Christmas and the number 68 just seems way to close!  While I like to look ahead and do some planning, right now the big picture just feels a bit overwhelming.  Well, one thing at a time right?  Let's start with something small to get ready for Christmas.

Whether you make 20 Christmas cards or 200 now is the time to get started on your Christmas designs.   I've been playing around with the Christmas Quilt bundle and having a lot of fun.  Even though the layout in the catalog shows all Christmas items it is super easy to change out the colors for a card for any time of the year.  I know a lot of stampers are enjoying creating little paper quilts with this set.  A little less time consuming than a real quilt!

I have to confess that when I bought this bundle I don't think I even really noticed that you can make a Christmas tree with some of the stamps!  I think I was so focused on the quilt shapes that I just saw triangles. 

This is a pretty easy card to put together and would be a good candidate for making multiples.  The card base is Whisper White thick and then a slightly smaller layer of Quilted Christmas DSP.

I layered a length of Lemon Lime Twist finely woven ribbon with a piece of Garden Green cardstock embossed in gold with the sentiment from the Star of Light stamp set.

The tree is a 2 step stamp design with the Lemon Lime Twist portion one stamp and the Garden Green part another stamp.  I use the outline stamp in Garden Green ink.  The tree base is stamped in Real Red.  Once the tree and base were cut out I popped them up with the dimensionals (the mini ones were the perfect size!) onto a Whisper White die cut circle.

A gold Glimmer paper star tops off the tree and a sweet little white baker's twine bowanchors the sentiment banner to the circle.

Start making a list and checking it twice to make sure you give yourself enough time to make your Christmas cards!

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Quilt, Star of Light

Ink: Garden Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Real Red, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Quilted Christmas DSP, Garden Green, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, Quilt Builder framelits, gold embossing powder, Lemon Lime Twist finely woven ribbon, dimensionals